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James29’s Spanish Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 177 of 668 11 October 2012 at 1:38am | IP Logged |
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Thank you for your post, Dean. I have often thought that my posts must be pretty boring because I feel like I just say the same thing over and over again. I have found that it definitely does "keep me honest", but, also, it does motivate me a bit. I recall vividly doing a couple hours extra of LR on the weekends a few times just to get a book done before I updated my log. It also makes me feel really guilty if I skip a day of Spanish.
Skype is really hit or miss. It took me a long time to find some good partners. There are so many variables. My schedule is such that I am probably not the best partner. I can rarely talk in the evenings so I find I am usually speaking with people from Spain. Also, there are many people who simply disappear (I think they just quit studying). I have found that I will only talk with people near my age and have something that indicates they are a serious learner. For me, I find it is a total waste of time to talk to a young person (no offense to young people. As I would take no offense to a young person saying an old fart like me is not worth talking to). I am convinced that the ideal skype partner is someone who wants to speak to you for some reason other than your English. I had one partner for a very long time who simply wanted to learn anything and everything about the United States. We had a great deal. We spoke in Spanish all the time as long as we spoke about the United States. I have also found people who simply want advice in professional areas where it is very easy for me. I simply trade what I consider very basic knowledge for the conversation in Spanish. It is a great deal for both sides. I have often wanted to write about this in this log because it really is a great thing if you can find someone like that. I don't know any great ways to find a partner like that, unfortunately. It just seems to happen. Regarding the immersion trip to Mexico... that sounds great! I would highly recommend finding a school with a homestay program. I did that in the Dominican and it was awesome. I am going to do the same thing in Ecuador. For me, safety is a big thing so I recommend checking out that factor too. The school/homestay programs can be very cheap and well worth it. If you go someplace not "touristy" you will be able to have total immersion. Don't think, however, that a few weeks of immersion is going to be the silver bullet and make you fluent. This is a very long process. Thanks for the post and good luck with your studies. Feel free to let me know if there is anything I can do to help. Edited by James29 on 11 October 2012 at 1:41am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 178 of 668 15 October 2012 at 1:51am | IP Logged |
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OK, not too much going on. I have been reading Atlas Shrugged and progressing quite well. I am logging my progress in my Atlas Shrugged log.
I did a very good and very long skype talk this week. It was all in Spanish. I had to skip this week's meetup again due to my schedule. I did not have enough time to watch any episodes of La Reina del Sur either. Ugh! I did get to spend some good time planning for my trip. I am determined to bring only one backpack with me and nothing else. This makes my choices on what to bring very important because I don't have much room. I really cannot wait for my trip. This is going to be great. I cannot believe how many different regions there are in such a small country. I don't want to spend a ton of money so I am going to need to balance things. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| joshkaasik Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4510 days ago 61 posts - 66 votes Speaks: English*, Estonian* Studies: Spanish, German | Message 179 of 668 19 October 2012 at 3:58pm | IP Logged |
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Great reading a long, consistent log for Spanish! Keep up the good work!
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 180 of 668 21 October 2012 at 11:24pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks, Josh. I just hope my consistency with my log continues to carry on. I think it helps me stay consistent with my Spanish progress.
I had a bit of another slow week. I am still moving through Atlas Shrugged, but have determined I will not be able to get it done before I go to Ecuador. I will slow down and spend some time with some other book or course over the next couple weeks. I think I might watch an economics series or quickly go through Living Language's Beyond the Basics course. I went to a different meetup. It was pretty cool. I feel like I understood totally everything that was said. There was a lot of talk about the regions of Spain which was really motivating. Some day I would love to go to Spain. I had a few short skype talks. I watched a couple episodes of La Reina Del Sur. I am somewhere around episode 19. Teresa just went to jail. I must say that I really liked El Gallego. He was a good character. Oh well. I messed around a bit and tested out my comprehension. I watched part of an economics course series that I eventually want to watch. I felt pretty comfortable watching it and I feel I could watch it now and really enjoy it. The prof spoke very fast, but it was kind of easy to understand simply because of the vocabulary and being able to intuitively interpret what he is going to say. I looked through the Assimil French book (in Spanish) again. I think I could do that too if I wanted to. I don't think the Spanish would slow me down too much and I can see how it could be easier to learn French through Spanish. I don't have any interest in doing this now, however. I could easily see taking six months to do the Assimil course. I think I would like it and I don't think it would cause my Spanish to suffer too much. I really am getting "hungry" to boost my Spanish to the next level. I am not where I want to be yet. I want it to be more effortless to speak and understand. I really think I would benefit from going through FSI again, but, wow, that is a committment. All this LR I have been doing is nice and is definitely helping my vocabulary and comprehension, but it really does not "supercharge" the learning process like FSI does. Another option would be Using Spanish, but I still feel like saving that for later. I finally had the feeling this week that "I know Spanish." It just hit me all of a sudden. It does take effort, but I really feel like I know the language now and I will never lose it (as long as I do some basic maintenance). I feel like native speakers are not really bothered talking to me anymore (in the sense that I can carry on a fairly normal conversation without having to ask to manny questions or asking to slow down too often). Well, tomorrow I think I will start something else and alternate with Atlas Shrugged for a while. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| joshkaasik Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4510 days ago 61 posts - 66 votes Speaks: English*, Estonian* Studies: Spanish, German | Message 181 of 668 22 October 2012 at 2:08am | IP Logged |
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Hey James, if you don't mind me asking, what's the economics series you're talking about?
I'm a grad student in international economics and policy, so I'd love to try to combine Spanish and what I study in school! Other than the fact that you're much further along in your studies, I feel like we have a bit in common haha, cause I'm married to someone from Ecuador so I will be spending significant time in Ecuador as well! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 182 of 668 25 October 2012 at 3:40am | IP Logged |
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Cool. I love combining two of my hobbies (Spanish and the self study of economics). I have watched a ton of economics videos at www.newmedia.ufm.edu. It is great. Look for the videos with transcriptions. I watched Manuel Ayau's "Proceso Economico" several times. It is a 12 hour series and there are transcripts for every class. You can also find Milton Friedman's "Libre para eligir" on the site. I am watching the seminar series on prices. There are literally thousands of hours of economics lectures and seminars on there so you should be able to find something that interests you. Edited by James29 on 25 October 2012 at 3:42am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5710 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi | Message 183 of 668 25 October 2012 at 2:30pm | IP Logged |
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James, I love your log! It's a real inspiration and has some very useful tips. Just curious, I notice you still haven't moved your Spanish from "Studies" to "Speaks"; any plans to do so? I'm sure identifying yourself as a "Beginner" is, by now, a gross underestime of your abilities.
¡Sigue así! Edited by Rout on 26 October 2012 at 7:50pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 184 of 668 26 October 2012 at 3:36am | IP Logged |
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Well, Rout, you are probably correct, I do "speak" Spanish and I am starting to feel comfortable saying that. I don't really know how to change my profile so I have not bothered to change it. Thanks for your input, it is nice to see that this is helpful to others. I am really doing the log for myself and my own benefit, but if it inspires others that is great!
1 person has voted this message useful |
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